Claims:We Claim:
1. A toy foam glider comprising:
a. a fuselage in the shape of an aircraft fuselage;
b. an elliptical wing; and
c. a tail piece
wherein, the fuselage contains slots for holding the elliptical wing piece and the tail piece of the glider.
2. A toy foam glider as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the elliptical wing of the glider helps to achieve increase aerodynamic efficiency.
3. A toy foam glider as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the elliptical wing lift distribution has the lowest possible induced drag.
, Description:Technical field of the Invention:
The present invention generally relates to the toy gliders. More specifically, the present invention relates to a toy glider with an elliptical wing design to increase the flying efficiency of the glider.
Background and prior art:
The conventional toy gliders were usually made of wooden material in the past which is usually a light wooden material such as balsa wood, or other lightweight rigid material, which can be light enough to fly and also rigid enough not to break. As the primary consumers of the gliders are mainly children, the toy gliders have to be more built with the materials with less fragility. The gliders which are made of wooden material have relatively great fragility of materials as some parts of the glider are made from a thin sheet which can be seen mainly in the wing and tail. Such materials leads to breaking of the glider, resulting in the consumers forced to invest more in the new toy. In order to overcome the drawbacks of the present invention, the toy gliders have been manufactured using a plastic material.
The toy gliders made with plastic are light in weight and relatively easily moldable. The plastic gliders are relatively rigid and easily broken, when handled by children. The broken glider cannot be flown and the broken pieces are difficult to clean, which makes the glider much suitable to play at outdoors than indoors.
US patent application 5,669,803 by James Sweed discloses Kick Glider Toy apparatus including a body member made of a resilient material, a wing member having a length greater than a width of the body member, and a weight member secured to the body member forward of the wing member. The wing member has a greater density than the body member. The body member is affixed centrally of the wing member. The wing member extends from the body member in a swept-back boomerang shape. The weight member is secured to the body forward of a center of gravity of the body member. A vertical stabilizer can be affixed to either the body member or to the wing member so as to extend upwardly therefrom.
US patent application by Richard S Halsey discloses a Toy Glider having an improved form of wing construction is disclosed. The glider is made from initially flat sheet stock which is expanded polystyrene. In one embodiment the body and wing are integral while in another the body and wing are separate. In each case the semispans of the wing are provided with score lines and V-notches and when in operative form, the edges of the V-notches are held together so as to give washout twist to the semispans. A shape-holding, rigidifying and balance-providing metal strip is employed, being positioned between folded-over strips along the leading edges of the semispans and the body, and the overlying portions thereof.
US patent application 4,863,413 by Schwarz Charles F discloses a Bird shaped toy glider which is preferably comprised of Styrofoam and includes a body. The body has a laminated head structure. A metal weight is embedded in the head between the laminations of the head structure for balancing the glider. A collapsible wing structure is provided and it includes a pair of wings mounted on the body behind the head. The body having its center of gravity at a medial point between opposite ends of the body. A tail structure is mounted on the rear end of the body. A stationary pivot pin is fixedly secured with and extends through the body behind the wings. Resilient spring-like means in the form of a rubber band operates to secure the collapsible wing structure on the body permitting the collapsible wings to be pivoted about the stationary pivot pin in a 90.degree. forward direction from a "free flight position" and further permits the wings to be folded back into flat abutment against opposite sides of the body in a direction rearward of the center of gravity of the toy glider into a "glider launch position". The rubber band serves a means to further co-act with the wings to move the wings from their "glider launch position" into the "free flight position" when air pressure from launching has diminished sufficiently so that the resilient spring-like means can then move the wings back into the "free flight position".
US patent application 5019007A Miller Jack V discloses a toy glider with variable dihedral wings which has an elongated fuselage including a nose section and a tail empennage section, an elongated, recessed wing mounting channel on each side of the flight axis including a female, V-shaped bottom for receiving a pair of wings. Each wing has a wing root in the form of an elongated polygon having male corners matching the V-bottom channel of the fuselage. A tension means, such as an elastic band, urges each wing root into a mating engagement with the wing root channel of the fuselage, whereby the tension means may be manually overcome to disengage wing root and permit movement of either wing in a vertical direction from the horizontal plane. In a preferred embodiment one male corner of the wing root as an upstanding rib matching an elongated groove in the V-bottom of the fuselage channel, providing a positive position for the wing in a flight configuration. A preferred embodiment provides separate, manually movable inboard and outboard wing sections which permit the wings to be configured as planar wings, gull wings, inverted gull wings or substantially folded gull wings.
There is a need for a glider model which is equipped with an elliptical wing to achieve increased flying efficiency. The present invention overcomes the deficiencies of the prior arts by providing a toy foam glider which is made of a flexible plastic foam with an elliptical wing design.
Objectives of the invention:
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a toy glider made of foam with an elliptical wing.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a toy glider with elliptical wing to achieve increased efficiency of the aircraft.
Summary of the invention
The present invention discloses a toy foam glider comprising an elliptical wing, a tail piece and a fuselage. The toy foam glider, according to the present invention, includes a fuselage portion which has the similar outline compared to an aircraft fuselage, which has two slots i.e. one slot for accommodating the elliptical wing and another slot for accommodating the tail portion.
According to the present invention, the toy foam glider is equipped with wing portion which is elliptical in shape that has to be fixed near to the front side of the fuselage and a tail portion which is an oval or a pill shaped attachment that has to be fixed at the rear end of the fuselage. The elliptical wing of the glider is designed in such a way that the a wing structure whose leading and trailing edges each has two segments of an ellipse. All the components of the present invention i.e. the fuselage, wing and tail piece are made of highly elastic foam material which is rigid in nature.
The preferred embodiment of the present invention discloses the elliptical wing of the glider which is mainly designed to provide efficient flying experience for the glider. The elliptical structure of the wing is the most suitable form for a glider to achieve maximum efficiency while flying. The elliptical wing shape minimizes the induced drag while flying the glider. Elliptical shape shortens the chord near the wingtips in such a way that all parts of the wings experience equivalent downwash, and lift at the wing tips is essentially zero, improving aerodynamic efficiency.

Brief Description of Drawings
FIG 1 illustrates the perspective view disclosing the parts involved in the construction of the toy foam glider.
FIG 2 illustrates the side view of the fully constructed toy foam glider.
FIG 3 illustrates the view disclosing the dimensions of the glider model.
Detailed Description of the Invention
The present invention discloses a toy foam glider with increased flying efficiency due to its wing planform which is of elliptical shape.
FIG 1 illustrates the perspective view disclosing the parts involved in the construction of the toy foam glider. With reference to the drawings, specifically FIG 1, the parts of the toy glider are disclosed which comprises of a fuselage 1, a wing 2, and a tail piece 3, a slot to accommodate the wing 4, and the slot to accommodate the tail 5.
According to FIG 1, the fuselage 1 of the toy foam glider has the shape similar to that of an aircraft which has two slots for accommodating the wing 2 and the tail piece 3. The slot 5 for accommodating the wing 2 is located near the front end of the toy foam glider whereas the slot 4 for accommodating the tail portion 3 is located at the rear end of the toy foam glider. The toy foam glider has wing portion 2 which is elliptical in shape helps the glider to fly for a prolonged time. The tail piece 3 of the toy glider is an oval or a pill shaped attachment that has to be fixed at the rear end of the fuselage 1.
The preferred embodiment of the present invention discloses a toy foam glider with an elliptical wing which is located almost at the center of the fuselage. The fuselage portion has the similar outline compared to an aircraft fuselage along with a slot for accommodating the elliptical wing and another slot for accommodating the tail portion.
According to the present invention, the elliptical wing portion is location in toy foam glider is specifically designed in elliptical shape and the tail portion is an oval or a pill shaped attachment that has to be fixed at the rear end of the fuselage. The elliptical wing of the glider is designed in such a way that the a wing structure whose leading and trailing edges each has two segments of an ellipse. The elliptical wing of the glider which is mainly designed to provide efficient flying experience for the glider. The elliptical structure of the wing is the most suitable form for a glider to achieve maximum efficiency while flying. The elliptical wing shape minimizes the induced drag while flying the glider which shortens the chord near the wingtips in such a way that all parts of the wings experience equivalent downwash, and lift at the wing tips is essentially zero, thus improving aerodynamic efficiency of the glider. The glider can cover up to 10 meters in a single flight.
FIG 2 illustrates the side view of the fully constructed toy foam glider. With reference to FIG 2, the toy glider assembly is shown, which comprises of a fuselage 6, a wing 7, and a tail piece 8.
FIG 3 illustrates the view disclosing the dimensions of the glider model. The dimensions of the elliptical wing is 212.202cm in length and 47.581cm in width. The dimensions of the tail piece is 68.942 cm in length and 21.312cm in width. The dinensions of the fuselage is width at the centre of fuselage with 40.642cm, rear end with 47.58cm and the tapered section with 29.408 cm.
The majority of the customers who use the toy foam glider are the children, hence the glider is developed to be suitable for the children to play with. When the children fly the glider, mainly in indoors, there are high chances of the glider colliding with any surface, which might lead to breaking of the glider. Also when the glider comes and collides with any obstacle, the flight time is terminated. Similarly when the glider is used to play at the outdoors, if the flight time of glider is less, the children might lose interest in the glider. The elliptical shape of the wing of the toy glider is developed such that the aerodynamic efficiency of the glider is increased which increases the flight time. All the components of the toy glider i.e. the fuselage, wing, and tail are made up of flexible foam material which is strong and rigid.
There are several advantages of using the elliptical wing shape in the glider which can include:
a. It is the most efficient form of the planform when compared to other planforms such as rectangular, tapered, etc.,
b. Aerodynamically, the elliptical planform is the most efficient as elliptical spanwise lift distribution has the lowest possible induced drag.
c. The elliptical wing increases the flight time of the toy glider, which can fly up to 10 meters in a single flight.
Further, since numerous modifications and changes can be readily made by those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation as shown and described above, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and similar designs fall back into and within the scope of the present invention.